Continues Commitment to Honor Veterans Service

WASHINGTON – Continuing its mission of providing a final resting place for Maryland veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced the award of a $1.9 million grant to expand the Crownsville Veterans Memorial Cemetery.  

“With the expansion of this state veterans cemetery, VA ensures that memorial benefits for Maryland veterans will be available for many more years,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. 

The grant will pay for construction of 2,434 full-casket burial sites, 1,087

in-ground cremation burial sites, 1,056 columbarium niches, utilities, landscaping and irrigation.

Maryland has four other VA-funded state cemeteries: the Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery; the Eastern Shore Veterans Cemetery in Hurlock; the Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery in Owings Mills; and the Rocky Gap Veterans Cemetery in Flintstone.

VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program complements VA’s 125 national cemeteries across the country.  The program helps states establish, expand or improve state veterans cemeteries. To date, the VA program has helped establish 66 veterans cemeteries in 35 states, Saipan and Guam, which provided more than 22,000 burials in fiscal year 2006.  Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 156 grants totaling nearly $286 million.

Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the VA Web site on the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.

Information about Maryland’s veterans cemeteries can be obtained from the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs at ** http://www.mdva.state.md.us/ ** or by calling
410-923-6981.

** Indicates a link to a non- Department of Veterans Affairs Website. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked website.

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